A Christmas Dream: 2nd Sea Day
Good morning. I slept good last night. Seven straight hours. No broken sleep. No Scooby Doo. This time it was American Ninja Warrior.
It looks better out here today. No wet decks.
I see a holiday show on the schedule today so I want to make sure I catch that. That’s something you don’t get to see the rest of the year.
Casino Bar
The Dr. Seuss parade is coming through.
I noticed this at the coffee shop. I’m going to have to remember to try them.
Main Lounge
My measuring stick for the number of kids on board–not too bad. I haven’t noticed them too much. There were a few on the elevator with me last night after dinner. After the late comedy show a bunch of them were peeking around the staircase between deck 4 and 5. They did something that made a loud boom and took off running down to the kids clubs. Then a half dozen were at the pizza place at 1am. That’s about it.
Brunch
I didn’t want to mess around with making multiple trips to the dining room waiting for the brunch line to go down. This time I just went when there was no line yesterday. Short line today.
The food came out quicker today and they got the steak right.
I saw this at the coffee bar yesterday. I think I’ll play along.
Bonsai Sushi. I’ll have the duck please.
I figure kids are doing this duck hunting so they have to get them into cherry on top.
The no man’s land side of the alchemy.
I’m really surprised i couldn’t find one in the art gallery that should be a red frog pub. They’re always trying to get people in there.
I had some time to kill before the Christmas show so I brought the money I won yesterday to the tables. If I would’ve left at the peak I would’ve doubled that but I stayed and lost it. So I’m even for the cruise. You gotta watch those dealers. I had one try to take my money when I beat him. Well he didn’t try. He did take my money. I had 19 he had 17. I’m like “wait..what did you just have?” We got it worked out though.
Main Lounge
“How about this seat? I feel like Lincoln.”
Funship for the show
At the morning show today they had a video of the grinch stealing the captains hat, gifts from camp ocean, and the roast beast.
Captain and crew.
The grinch returning the things he stole.
Panorama Deck
After the Christmas show I went to check out the decks. Serenity was about 75% full. This is what lido looked like.
Guy’s BBQ
Alchemy Bar
After eating I went to the alchemy to grab a drink and work on my letter to Santa before the hairy chest contest. I was able to secure position 1 at the alchemy. Maria had a new recipe she wanted to try out on me and it was really good. It looked like she put Malibu and Bacardi in it and it has a strawberry flavor.
Red Frog Rum Bar
Reds Rum Treasure from the Rum bar.
The girl hosting this hairy chest contest is the comedy club manager who twice was a fill-in CD on my cruises.
Alchemy Bar
After the hairy chest contest I headed down the the Alchemy bar.
This is one of the problems with the alchemy location on the Dream Class. They’re doing trivia in ocean plaza. I came here to drink. I tried to grab a good spot at the bar and the people next to it said they were saving it. Now I’m stuck in no mans land and none of those people are drinking. Five of the best alchemy spots are taken up by people just playing trivia.
Another Maria drink. This is kind of a sour drink with a sugar rim.
Trivia ended and the bar cleared out. Just three people remained. I was able to move out of no mans land into alchemy position 1.
Manol said he he was doing some experimenting, which I like. This is what he came up with. It’s good. I know it has Malibu in it.
Another Manol drink before I go get ready for dinner.
Cabin
We’re going to learn a lot about my cabin steward tonight. Does he preserve, kidnap, or murder towel animals?
But first let’s talk about the eyes on last nights towel animal. It seems as though he’s torn up my discarded papers and used them for eyes. I don’t have high hopes for tonight’s test.
Dinner
A lot of people like to eat early this cruise. It wasn’t just on elegant night. The Your Time Dining lines are just as long as they were last night.
A group of 4 just came down the steps from deck 4 and cut in line there. The line starts way behind the bar.
I like to stay at the same table with the same waitstaff the entire cruise. But last night my section was closed so I sat at a different table with a different waitstaff. Tonight I went back to the first table which is the table I sat at all cruise last time. This waitstaff isn’t blowing me away. I think I like the ones from last night better. I may move tomorrow.
Steak and Cheddar soup
Once there was a snail who was tired of being slow. He went out and bought a really fast sports car and had the dealer paint a big ‘S’ on each side of it.
Whenever someone saw him zooming past in his new car, they would say, “Hey, look at that S-car go!”
Short ribs add baked potato and broccoli
I decided to try a dessert I haven’t tried yet: Chocolate panna cotta. After a 20 minute wait, I decided I wasn’t that hungry.
Cabin
I went back to the room to grab my glasses and change into a more comfortable shirt and now I’m heading to the comedy show.
I think this steward just took last nights towel animal and made the ears longer–sad.
Atrium
Ugly Christmas sweater contest
‘Tis the season in the atrium
Alchemy Bar
Another Manol drink.
This is a Maria drink. It has wine and chambord in it and that’s white chocolate on the outside. If you know me, you know I love white chocolate. You also know there’s no way I’m licking the outside of that glass like she wants me to. But when I’m done anyone here who wants to lick it can have at it.
Another Maria drink
Comedy Club
I stayed at Alchemy through one of the comedy shows but I had to come back for Just June’s last show. She’s really good.
And we’ve reached standing room only in the comedy club. People are enjoying the pre-show music and dancing.
Alchemy Bar
I’m back at Alchemy after comedy. I just got a drink from Maria. It’s a strawberry cucumber drink.
Last drink of the night.
If you read my review last time you may remember a night where I wanted to go to the nightclub and couldn’t because they reserved it for crew that night and gave guests the aft part of lido deck which was difficult to get to the way they blocked it off to keep minors out. And that part was unusable as a dance club because the deck was wet. I don’t recall seeing this on other ships. I thought maybe it’s a once a month thing and I got the unlucky week.
Well I’m guessing it’s a weekly deal here because it’s going on tonight. But now they’re concealing what it is by covering all of the windows on the night club and putting the private party sign out instead of the crew members only sign they used last cruise.
And they’ve moved the outdoor night club from lido to serenity. I don’t know maybe it’s great on serenity. I know last time there was only like 5 people out there. I had no intention of going to the nightclub tonight but I’m not a fan of taking away guest areas during their peak times. Let the crew have it 2am-10pm when guests aren’t using it. Do it seven days a week if you want. But let the guests have it 10pm-2am every night they paid for.
Cabin
I wanted something different than pizza tonight and the pizza place on Dream doesn’t have the late night meatball sub or lasagna options they had on Breeze, Freedom and Triumph. They do have some type of late night option in the buffet so I decided to check it out. They had pans of sandwiches, cookies, and some kind of pasta. I got the meatball and the grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. Not bad. Not as good as that pizza place lasagna, but not bad.
